Spurs-Grizzlies should be defensive showdown in West finals

Updated 7:31 pm, Saturday, May 18, 2013

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - On the best playoff run in their short history, the Memphis Grizzlies refuse to be satisfied with just reaching their first Western Conference finals.

The San Antonio Spurs? Well, they know time is running out for a team that has done so much in the NBA playoffs yet last celebrated a championship in 2007.

Blowing a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals a year ago to Oklahoma City has driven the Spurs since training camp, and now they are back with Game 1 on Sunday against Memphis determined not to waste another chance.

"We understand as a team that those opportunities are very rare, and we have another great one right now," Spurs guard Tony Parker said Saturday. "We have home-court advantage against a very good team, so we have to take full advantage of it."

The Grizzlies are the former expansion franchise that started in Vancouver before moving to Memphis, and they started by setting the NBA record for postseason futility, losing their first 12 playoff games.

Coach Lionel Hollins, who won an NBA title in 1977 as a player with Portland, has his Grizzlies believing they can win one, too. The No. 5 seed in the West ousted first the Clippers, then the Thunder by winning eight of its past nine games, including three straight on the road.

"We're just worried about going forward," Grizzlies guard Mike Conley said. "We're happy to be here, but we're still focused on bigger things, and we got another tough opponent."

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Series preview

Season series: 2-2

Key matchup: Tony Parker vs. Mike Conley. The Battle of the Bigs is going to be epic, but the outcome will be determined by the point guards. Parker has become what coach Gregg Popovich calls "the head of the snake" for the Spurs. Conley is nearly as important to the Griz, especially when his perimeter shot is falling.

Spurs can win if: Tim Duncan gets enough rest between Games 2 and 3 to allow the Spurs to steal a win in Memphis. When Duncan has his legs, he's capable of doing big things in the post. When he shows his age, his shots are short. Game 3 will be the key for the Spurs in a grind-it-out series.

Grizzlies can win if: Tony Allen proves he is the best defender on the team, rather than Marc Gasol. If Allen disrupts the Spurs' 3-point game and helps in limiting Parker, the Spurs will be unable to match what the Grizzlies get on the inside.

Prediction: Spurs in 7.

Mike Monroe

That would be the Spurs with Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili who swept the Grizzlies out of their first postseason in 2004. When Memphis finally won a postseason series, they beat the Spurs in six games in 2011, kicking off that series by winning the first game in San Antonio. Ginobili said the Spurs were not at their best that series and struggled to stop the Grizzlies' big men in Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph.

"We started with the wrong foot, we lost the first one and they got stronger and confident, and that's how they beat us," Ginobili said.

This should be a defensive showdown between teams built around big men, with Memphis countering Duncan with 7-1 Gasol and Randolph down low. Memphis held teams to an NBA-low 89.3 points during the season.